By AFPRelaxnews | Mar 7, 2024
Here are the auction highlights from 2023 that show the trend of buying and how India is becoming an emerging market for art auctions
[CAPTION]Showroom auctions are facing increased competition from internet auctions. Showroom auctions are facing increased competition from internet auctions.
Image: Isaac Lawrence / AFP©[/CAPTION]
A boom in internet sales has boosted the lower end of the art market and could ultimately doom showroom auctions, said the boss of sector-tracker Artprice, which published its annual report Wednesday.
Artprice, a market analysis firm, said there were fewer blockbuster auctions in 2023 compared with the previous year, and the overall turnover of $14.9 billion was down 14 percent.
_RSS_But the number of overall transactions hit a record high of 763,000, with "an explosion" at the lower end of the spectrum where there were 423,000 sales of art for under $1,000.
"The market has clearly shifted to the internet, driven by new buyers whose average age has fallen from 63 to 41 (over the last two decades)," Artprice CEO Thierry Ehrmann told AFP.
He said even traditional auctioneers who suffered from "digital-phobia" for a long time were now competing on the internet.
"Showroom auctions are doomed to disappear," Ehrmann added.
With Asia fully emerging from pandemic-era restrictions, high-end sales were up in China and Hong Kong, but there were fewer big-ticket auctions in Western countries.
The US market remained the leader with $5.2 billion in sales, but that was down 28 percent since there was no repeat of the huge private collection sales of recent years.
It was followed by China at $4.9 billion and Britain with $1.8 billion, the latter continuing its post-Brexit decline with sales down 15 percent.
Also read: Picasso's 'Woman with a Watch' fetches $139 million at New York auction